


Watching

by DavineNaughter



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Bobby Singer (mentioned) - Freeform, Destiel - Freeform, Guardian Angel, Hell, Nightmare, Oneshot, SO, Sam Winchester (mentioned) - Freeform, Torture, Up for interpretation, Victor Henrikson's ghost (mentioned), Watching, but also not NOT intended as destiel, not intended as destiel, season 4, tucking in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 05:50:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11708124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DavineNaughter/pseuds/DavineNaughter
Summary: "You think the armies of heaven should just follow you around?"Castiel hadn't been lying - not really. The armies of heaven didn't follow Dean Winchester around. No, he definitely hadn't been lying.On the other hand, Castiel did follow Dean Winchester around.*  *  *  *  *Set after s4e02: Are You There God? It's Me, Dean Winchester. In which Castiel was assigned as a guardian to watch the righteous man, but told not to intervene unless absolutely necessary. Dean has another nightmare about hell.





	Watching

Castiel hadn't been lying - not really. The armies of heaven didn't follow Dean Winchester around. No, he definitely hadn't been lying.

On the other hand, Castiel did follow Dean Winchester around. Dean was his charge, after all. The righteous man, the end to the apocalypse. Heaven couldn't leave him unguarded.

Right now, Castiel was watching Dean sleep. Dean didn't sleep nearly as much as a human was meant to, Castiel had noticed in the time he had been watching him. Somehow it was still long enough for Castiel to grow bored.

Castiel was used to watching. For centuries his garrison had been assigned to do nothing but watch the world, and it had quickly gotten tedious. Castiel never complained, or wandered, or lost his focus, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy it.

So he noticed it instantly when Dean started tossing in his bed. Castiel quickly perked up. Dean shoved at his sheets and was mumbling worriedly in his sleep. His face scrunched up in displeasure.

Castiel did not deny himself the simple satisfaction of peeking into Dean's dreams. He was meant to be watching, after all.

Dean's dream was chaotic and loud and bloody. It was full of chains and knives. Castiel flinched at the horrible screeching that filled the scene. It was a strange blend between a bleeding woman's voice and Dean's own. The woman's scream was garbled due to the fact that she was gagging up a piece of her own esophagus, but Dean's was strong and crystal clear. Dean was dreaming of hell.

Castiel cast a saddened gaze in Dean's direction. There had been few nights since Dean had been resurrected that he hadn't dreamt of the pit. Some nights Dean was on the rack and some he was in front of it, but it was always hell.

At this point his dream was an ugly hybrid of both, but that changed when a blade appeared. Dean fell from where he was being restrained to the floor in front of the bleeding woman. His face quickly smoothed out the emotion on it as he stood up. His eyes looked dead as he cut the woman in front of him.

Castiel's eyes crinkled at the woman's first scream. He truly hated to see Dean in pain. Castiel had nearly gone crazy watching him fight the witnesses. He was about to step in when Victor was about to kill Dean, but Sam had taken care of the spirit. Castiel had spent that whole afternoon watching Dean irritatedly. He had wanted to help protect him more than anything, as his assigned guardian, but his orders had been not to interfere unless Dean was dying. 

Later when Dean had yelled at him for not helping when his heart had nearly been ripped out...Castiel had felt immense regret, to say the least.

But he didn't turn away from the dream. Sure, he could avoid the pain and go back to his corporeal post watching Dean, but it didn't feel right. Castiel wouldn't help him, he didn't deserve to ignore him too.

So he watched as Dean sliced through the woman on the rack. He watched the blood spurt and run and fly every which way until it seemed to overtake everything. He watched Dean's soul dim with every action. He was supposed to be watching Dean, so he watched Dean.

Only after a long time did Castiel realize it: he recognized this woman. He recognized the scene before him. This wasn't a random vision of hell his brain had fabricated; this was a memory. This was the woman Dean had been torturing when Castiel had rescued him. Castiel felt relieved, knowing he wouldn't have to watch Dean suffer much longer, knowing that without interfering he could still help Dean.

Quickly it became clear that something was wrong. Castiel prepared for the moment he had come down and first laid his hand on Dean's soul, but it didn't come. He knew the moment should have happened, but it didn't. Dean's dream was of him torturing this woman on a loop, resetting right before Castiel came in and saved him.

If he had been corporeal he thought he might've punched something. Castiel watched the loop several times, each time hoping more vigorously for the memory to finish properly, but never being rewarded.

After the fifth time, he simply couldn't take it anymore.

Surely it couldn't be against the rules for Castiel to break the loop. He was assigned to watch a sleeping human; it was boring enough to watch nothing. But the loop? It was simply maddening. He couldn't be blamed for prompting the boring dream to finish itself. It would be ludicrous.

So that's what Castiel did.

This time, as the loop came to its close, the whole dream got brighter. A white light appeared from above Dean, who shielded his eyes. The woman's screams were silenced. The light enveloped Dean, but focused on his left arm. Dean's dark soul struggled against the light; it was burning him. But soon enough hell faded away, and so did the light. He still burned, but when the memory was done the dream reoriented itself to a different scene. It was nothing remarkable, just Dean having dinner with Sam in a diner somewhere, but it was infinitely better than hell. In fact, as Castiel watched he found it was almost pleasant.

It was also a curious image for Castiel. Whenever Castiel looked at Sam, he was overwhelmed by the putrid sight of demon's blood. Castiel couldn't help viewing Sam as inherently unclean. In fact, whenever Dean was with Sam Castiel grew immensely irritated. The righteous man should be kept clean. But now, seeing Sam's image filtered through Dean's mind, he saw affection. Dean truly cared about Sam, he could see, and Dean seemed at peace at that table. Perhaps Castiel could become less averse to them spending time together.

Satisfied with how the dream had ended up, Castiel pulled himself out of it back to where he was standing at the foot of Dean's bed. He looked over to Dean and smiled softly at how he no longer thrashed around in his sheets. The sheets were still thrown haphazardly about him though, and Castiel simply couldn't resist.

Dean was sleeping in a spare room at Bobby Singer's house, so tonight he was alone. It was quite rare that Dean was sleeping in a room without anyone else in it, so Castiel decided to take advantage of that. Making himself visible to humans and able to physically push matter, he stepped over to the bed. He reached down to grab the sheet and pulled it up farther around Dean.

Before he placed it down softly he caught a glimpse of his handprint on Dean's shoulder. He smiled again. Castiel would be lying if he claimed that wasn't a point of pride for him. He had successfully rescued the righteous man from perdition. He had been honored to be assigned the task, and did not take its significance lightly.

He was immensely pleased when he had gotten Dean Winchester out of hell. Secretly he was also pleased to see him sleep soundly that night, even though he would never admit that.

Because of course it wasn't his doing - he had merely been watching.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you all enjoyed! Any comments or criticism are immensely appreciated!! I really would love to know how my first post in this fandom is received!  
> Idk if any of my usual readers will read this, since it's not the fandom I usually write for, and I know I'm late to jump on the supernatural fic bandwagon, but screw it. I have stories to tell.  
> I'm also working on a chaptered fic that takes place in season 6, with my wonderful new beta who makes my writing infinitely better, so anyone who likes this keep an eye out. Though she is at camp rn so she didn't read this.  
> Again, thanks and please comment! I really really do hope you enjoyed!!


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